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iBook boot/wake problem, should I be worried?

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Nermal

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Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
21,452
5,334
New Zealand
Today I tried to wake my iBook from sleep by opening the lid. The Sleep light turned off but nothing appeared on the screen. I pressed the Power button and nothing happened. I closed the lid, waited a while, then opened it again, still nothing. I pressed Ctrl+Cmd+Power to force a reboot, and heard the startup chime, and saw the Apple logo. But then, about 30 seconds later, the right side of the screen got covered with horizontal stripes (reaching from the right edge to about 5 cm inwards). The Apple logo also had a stripey logo to the left of it. The HD wasn't doing anything at this point.

I pressed Ctrl+Cmd+Power again, and got the startup chime, but nothing appeared on the screen. I could hear the HD going though. I was getting quite worried by this point! I held Power until the iBook turned off, waited a while, then turned it back on again. It booted up fine that time, but I'm still concerned about what happened.

I've got an 800 MHz Nov 2002 iBook. I installed new RAM in it a few days ago, and have run the hardware test, which didn't find any problems.
 
I can't say whether you should be worried because I have just started to get the same problem (screen not waking from sleep) on my 17" PB - I too would like some assistance (I don't have stripey lines though)
 
Might be a pinched video connector cable going to the screen. I just had one of those replaced by Apple. If you are still under Apple Care, take it in, just in case.

Regards,
Gus
 
how long was it asleep for? mine does this every-so-often but generally only if i put it to sleep while its doing something heavy or if its been asleep for sometime (like 24hrs). The screen sometimes stays blank for 30s or so.
 
Could be maybe the power manager? If it happens again, definitely have it fixed, if it never does again, i wouldn't worry about it. I doubt whatever it is will pose a threat to data integrity...

pnw
 
Originally posted by paulwhannel
Could be maybe the power manager? If it happens again, definitely have it fixed, if it never does again, i wouldn't worry about it. I doubt whatever it is will pose a threat to data integrity...

pnw
Click to expand...

speaking of power - it might be worth resetting the powermanagement (if you're using an iBook/pismo). Can't remember how to do it - something to do with removing the battery - i'm sure someone will follow on from this for me...
 
Originally posted by mrjamin
how long was it asleep for? mine does this every-so-often but generally only if i put it to sleep while its doing something heavy or if its been asleep for sometime (like 24hrs). The screen sometimes stays blank for 30s or so.
Click to expand...

It was asleep for around 2 hours. I must've pushed buttons etc for about a minute before I forced the reboot. It seems to be behaving itself now, but I'll reset the power manager anyway.
 
Some Info...

If you have the iBook 600-800 Mhz type of machine I am certain what your problem is: a faulty logicboard. My 700 iBook started doing that in March. I tried ecerything: resetting PRAM, restiing the pwer manager... forget it: take it to an Apple authorized repair center. It needs to go back to Apple and have the logic board replaced. It is a very common problem with this type of iBook.
 
It's just died completely

Well, I've gone from a system that failed once, to one that now won't display anything at all :(

I try to start it up, and I hear the HD and the OS loading, but don't see anything. I tried plugging in a known-working CRT and it doesn't display anything either. Looks like I'm going to have to ring Apple. :(
 
I tried booting up again, and it worked this time. I'm not going to shut down again any time soon! I've backed up everything important, and removed anything, er, incriminating ;) from the system. But it looks like it's going to have to be fixed :(

What should I do? Should I ring Apple support, which is based in Australia (free call), or should I take it to the local Apple service place?
 
Well, you said you just added RAM, so I would remove it and see if the problem goes away. You could also do a reset-all in openfirmware just for kicks.

Something similar happened to me once though (I have iBook 800). I woke up the machine to a blank screen, but I figured it might have something to do with the screen saver or energy saver. I successfully used command-shift-q and the enter key, and all of a sudden the screen showed up with the login screen. Never happened again.
 
This comes up often with my Pismo as well. In fact, I've heard issues about waking from sleep with nearly every Apploe notebook computer.....(Actually, my old 3400 never had any troubles in this area).

Few things you can do....try resetting the PRAM. Throw out Power Management Preferences (they will reset to default). In OS9, you can find this in the Preferences folder.....OS X is a little trickier, visit XLR8YOURMAC.com for that, a reader submitted the procedure there about 2 months ago.

Also try resetting the PRAM/NVRAM from inside Open Firmware (Option-Apple-O-F)....i think at boot.

Type

Reset-NVRAM
Reset-All

If all else fails, you may need to have your internal PRAM battery replaced, thiese are known to go bad once in a while.
 
I tried Cmd-Shift-Q etc but that didn't work. I'm gonna keep the system running over the weekend and see whether it drops out. So far I've only had the problem when rebooting or waking from sleep. I'm too scared to shut it down and remove the memory! And I don't want to reboot into Open Firmware, just in case it dies again. I'm certainly not taking it to class tomorrow - it would be bad publicity for Apple if it's dead when everyone's looking :eek:
 
Hi I have the same problem occuring - I see recommendations to reset PRAM in a lot of threads but I can't find out how to do this - it doesn't seem to be in Help or on the Apple website.

What is this mystical PRAM and how do I fry it!:confused:
 
I agree with Balin64: it does sound suspiciously like a faulty logic board problem to me. My 17" PB also did the same thing and I sent it in to Apple --- came back with a replaced motherboard.

As far as I know, the local people can't really do much with a laptop in their hands, whether by lack of skill or Apple company directive. My local repair place just immediately sent it over to Apple in a box when I dropped off my Powerbook... I think you'd be better off making the call.
 
Originally posted by Kiwi-Todd
Hi I have the same problem occuring - I see recommendations to reset PRAM in a lot of threads but I can't find out how to do this - it doesn't seem to be in Help or on the Apple website.

What is this mystical PRAM and how do I fry it!:confused:
Click to expand...

I tried that. To do it, you hold Cmd-Option-P-R while booting up, you'll hear the startup sound twice.
 
Originally posted by orangefoodie
As far as I know, the local people can't really do much with a laptop in their hands, whether by lack of skill or Apple company directive. My local repair place just immediately sent it over to Apple in a box when I dropped off my Powerbook... I think you'd be better off making the call.
Click to expand...

Apple's site says "Service for Apple Computer equipment in New Zealand is provided by a network of Authorised Service Providers located throughout New Zealand." which to me makes it sound like they want me to take it to the local place. I'm going to see if I can use the system over the weekend and try a few things, then I'll head into the local shop on Monday and see what they say.
 
Me again...

I took out the new memory, same problem. So that's not the culprit. Wish it was.
 
I had the exact same problem, well pretty much anyway, with my iBook.

It was a faulty logic board, which had to be replaced. Twice. First time around they replaced my 800mhz board with a 700 mhz one. grrrrr...

(NZ local support. Gotta love it...)

The other posts are correct. This flaw is not uncommon in these machines. Lovely machines the Nov 02 iBooks, but there seems to be a lot that goes wrong with them!
 
Did you ring Apple directly, or did you take it to an AppleCentre? Or something else? I'm not sure what you're "supposed" to do, as Apple's site seems to contradict itself, and since I bought it in the US, the documentation's all for US/Canada.

Edit: Never mind, I just rang Apple and they told me what to do.
 
I took it to my local Applecare dealer. The nearest Apple freephone from here is in Australia... :(
 
I rang Apple last night and they told me to take it to an AppleCentre (which I guess is the equivalent of an Apple Store), so it's going to one today.
 
I just got back from class and decided to give it a go and see what happens - it booted up fine. So I've set it not to go to sleep and hopefully it'll last over the weekend.
 
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